Guerlain Habit Rouge L’Instinct, L’Artisan Parfumeur Abyssae, Givenchy Gentleman Reserve Privee, Sana Jardin Venus Of Verbena reviews

Even though the folks at Guerlain don’t shy away from flankers, a new addition to the Habit Rouge range remains a rarity. So it’s not surprising that a fair amount of excitement has surrounded the arrival of Guerlain Habit Rouge L’Instinct, Delphine Jelk’s take on Jean-Paul Guerlain’s 1965 masterpiece. I reviewed the scent, as well as a few others, in a recent video over on YouTube. Here’s a link: Guerlain Habit Rouge L’Instinct, L’Artisan Parfumeur Abyssae, Givenchy Gentleman Reserve Privee, Sana Jardin Venus Of Verbena reviews.

I can’t say I’m besotted with Jelk’s almost brutally stripped-back iteration of the original, but then I’m certain it wasn’t made for the likes of me. I consider the edt to be not just one of the greatest masculines of all time, but one of the greatest perfumes, full stop. So it was always going to be difficult to win me over with a version that moves quite far away from the richness and complexity that I adore so dearly in Jean-Paul Guerlain’s work.

As I said in the broadcast, L’Instinct strikes me as an attempt to woo buyers who’ve been spending their cash on the likes of Dior Sauvage and Bleu De Chanel, while simultaneously trying to remain faithful to a few key elements of Guerlain’s DNA. Such gambles run the risk of trying to please everyone, and consequently collapsing into the gaping Hole Of Nothing in the centre of the Venn diagram. I fear this may well be the fate of L’Instinct, mainly because it isn’t sufficiently distinctive or assertive to elicit lasting loyalty. I hope I turn out to be wrong, as I’m all for any measure that shines a spotlight on the original scent. But my own instinct tells me that if there is a Gen Z Habit Rouge out there somewhere, waiting to be bottled, this isn’t it.

Persolaise

[Guerlain Habit Rouge L’Instinct review based on a sample obtained by me in 2022.]

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